Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C - 2013

The readings today leave us three important lessons.

The first is simply that God has power over death.

Yes God is stronger than death.

Belief in the resurrection is one of  cornerstones on which everything rests.

If you don’t believe that God has power of death,

if you don’t believe that all of us will rise again,

then your time would be better spent elsewhere.

Stand up right now and head over to Josie’s for Breakfast and have some of their great homemade bread or go over to the Timberlin Golf course and play a round of golf.

The fact that God’s power over death puts our life in perspective.

In the first reading Eliajh raises a widow’s son from the dead.

In the Gospel Jesus does the same.

Most of the time our resurrection happens in the next world but these scriptures remind us that God can certainly raise a person from the dead even in this world.

I’ve been thinking a lot about death these last few months and of course there have been moments when I simply forgot that God is stronger than death,

Of course there have been moments of saddness as I mourn the my Mom’s loss.

The other day I walked into my Office saw my Mother’s purse laying there and the tears began to flow.

Yet, I know without a shadow of a doubt that Mom is in a better place. God loves her and she no longer has to struggle to breath.

She is no longer struggles to speak to us on the phone.

I understand that my tears are often more about me than about her.

And I believe that that’s ok

Time will heal.

love will endure, life will go one for me, and life has gone on for her an new and more beautiful life.

Holy Fr. Raymond drove this point home to me the day before his surgery.

I was with him in his hospital room and I was getting all emotional worried sick about him. He looked me in the eye without fear and without any trace of regret and simply said...

Robert if you gotta go you gotta go.

Yesterday he told me when he opened his eyes in the recovery room he said... "Oh I'm still here" and he started to laugh.

These scriptures and our eyes of faith teach us that Death has no real power over us.

It has no power...

Death is simply a door from one life to the next, a door through which all of us will one day pass.

The second lesson is as simple as the first.

Not only does God have power over death but He also has power over life if we let him in

St. Paul hated the followers of Jesus

He made it his mission to seek them out and prosecute them.

He did everything in his power to stomp out the little community of believers that was blossoming all over Palestine

and yet God reached down and and changed Paul’s hardened heart.

Just like God changed Pauls heart,

I have the consolation of knowing that

God can change my heart or God can change your heart.

God can free us from our prejudices.

He can help us save our marriages

He can challenge us to be better people.

He can free us from our addictions and our shame.

God can open our eyes to the needs of others.

God can forgive our sins.

He may have to knock us off our high horse like he did for Paul but He can change us for sure.

Yes, God is indeed powerful, powerful over death, and powerful over life.

Finally, the first reading and the Gospel illustrate so clearly for us the loving compassion of God.

Elijah and Jesus could just not bear to see those two widows mourn the loss of their sons.

During the time of Jesus a widow was the poorest of the poor with no rights and no way to sustain themselves.

Jesus and Elijah didn’t just say oh I’m sorry I’ll say a prayer for you.

The sprang into action and they turned to God for help.

We all need to be more compassionate people.

So often when we see a need we cop out and say oh that’s none of my business,who am I to get involved>

So often when poverty or suffering or hunger or whatever show their faces in our community we say to ourselves and our friends something like what a shame but what can I do?.

Yesterday as I was going to see Fr. Raymond during the driving rain there was a lady with a flat tire standing on the side 84 looking distraught.

By the time I could get off and get back on and get off again and get going in the right direction, there was already a man hunched over a jack changing the tire in the driving rain.

The lady told me he was just someone who stopped, she didn’t have a clue who he was, but there he was drenched to the bone changing her tire.

He was a compassionate man indeed.

With the incarnation our compassionate God jumped into all of our messes.

He didn’t just look on and say what a shame I’ll just stand by and see when they get it right.

No God pulled up His sleeves and started to help and for his efforts he was crucified.

The world would be such a different place if everyone showed  more compassion

Jesus did and so must we.

Let us begin to look at death confidently with the eyes of faith.

Let us trust that God can change our lives if we let him.

Like Jesus and Elijah let us be compassionate people willing to get involved in the lives of those who need.

Thanks you Lord for the gift and challenge of faith.

Amen